Texas Music Festival: Orchestral story-telling with pep

The performer-turned-conductor is now almost so common that there must be a doctoral dissertation on the subject lurking somewhere – or halfway to completion.

The Texas Music Festival offered another example in concluding the 2007 month-long training program for young musicians. Saturday at the University of Houston, Joel Smirnoff led TMF Orchestra in a stirring and well-executed concert of story-telling music by Richard Strauss, UH professor Marcus Maroney, and Hector Berlioz.

Smirnoff made his professional conducting debut in summer 2000 in the middle of a distinguished career as a violinist. He’s been a member of the Juilliard String Quartet since 1986 and the first violinist since 1997. He chairs the violin department at the Juilliard School but has time to make guest conducting appearances in the United States and Europe.

His guest soloist for Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, based on a narrative poem by Lord Byron, was another well-known figure from the world of educators/professional musicians: violist Roberto Diaz, president of the Curtis School of Music, former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and a professor of viola at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music for a brief time before going to Philadelphia.

Smirnoff seemed perfect for students. He exuded relaxed confidence and showed an obvious physical involvement with the music. His podium persona was strong but not excessive. Cues were sharp but appropriate (for both performers and listeners). Theatrics were subdued and right for the moment

His impact on the strings was evident from the four notes opening of Richard Strauss’ folklore-based Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, the evening’s first work. He had clearly told the violins about the importance of making an impact immediately. The sound was polished and assertive. Later, in Harold in Italy, he got the string sections – most impressively, the double basses – to play with strong yet barely audible quietness.

The winds needed similar lessons but either didn’t get it or couldn’t play softly with the same control. Several times they were too loud, especially at a key moment accompanying Diaz.

Smirnoff offered tidy interpretations with point and pep. The rhythmic energy at times was more American than German or French, but the students played smartly and cleanly throughout. Their sound was svelte and consistently attractive.

In Harold in Italy, the violist is really an obbligato role (Diaz exited midway through the final movement when his playing was over). He performed with a big, rich sound and quiet assurance. Interpretively, his playing was a bit too bland.

The centerpiece was the premiere of Maroney’s Märchenbilder (Fairytale Pictures). The three depictions of German fairy tales were true to the literary genre. Such stories are at heart pretty dark and scary, despite the sometimes innocent surface storytelling.

Maroney captured the dichotomy very well. The music had a foundation of tonality but skittering over and around it were dissonant passages that suggested the dark mood of the stories. Yet with the tonal anchors sufficiently strong, it was a little hard to decide whether the composer was more interested in the safety of the surface or the horrorific underbelly of the tales.

The composer showed an inventive sense of orchestration: e.g., violins playing the same notes with some plucking the strings and others bouncing the bows off the strings. Such gestures made Märchenbilder consistently intriguing, but overall the work conveyed earnestness rather than playfulness or philosophical depth.